Many families in Western Australia have been helped by Jenny Roberts and decided that more people needed to know about her work.

As a result the Jenny Roberts Foundation was founded in 2009.

Jenny Roberts was born in 1956, and was raised on a sheep farm, South of Perth. She had a strong interest in horse riding as a child and competed competitively for many years. Her love of horses became a significant influence in her future when working with children professionally.

Jenny always wanted to help people, children in particular. Her own family was strongly service driven within the local community. She achieved a Queen’s guide award as a teenager. While growing up she had constant contact with a several close relatives who had disabilities. This lead her into a world of helping others and sowed the seeds for her future profession.

In the 1970’s Jenny attended the WA Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) and completed a Bachelor of Applied Science degree. She received an award from her high school many years later for her impact in making change in the community. Soon after graduating from university she married and had her family of three girls. In the mid eighties she moved to the south west town of Busselton with her family.

They say that when one door closes another opens, and this is what happened. The real journey for her began. She started working with families, listening to what mothers and fathers wanted and, as a result, saw a new direction evolved in her practise. Firstly, with how she perceived the situation and secondly, with what she could offer her clients.

Jenny had lots of general experience with children. She had run horse riding camps in her late teens on her parents farm and then on her farm in Busselton. There always seemed to be children around when Jenny was doing something.

As her practise grew, she opened another in Bunbury and provided a home visiting service in other areas including the Metro area of Perth. Over time she developed her own parenting model which she ran for nearly ten years, starting in the early nineties in the Perth area of Wembley, and the country towns of Harvey, Eaton, Bunbury , Busselton and Margaret River.

Over the years Jenny’s camps for children became respite overnight stays for autistic children at her farm in Busselton, a service she still offers today.

The general public first began aware of her work when she was featured in the West Australian with a mention in 1996 of her “horse whispering” ways with Autism. This was followed with a short documentary ‘”Calming ways for helping children with Autism” on national television in 2003.